FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
The Botanical Chelsea wares with decoration of ‘Hans Sloane’ type come from a private English collection built up during the 1950s and 1960s. Through this collection we see what is arguably the most flamboyant and historically sought after type of decoration on Chelsea porcelain. Many of these specimens were taken from illustrations in Philip Miller’s ‘Figures of Plants’ published between 25th March 1755 and 20 December 1756, these two volumes illustrate 300 plants contained within the Physic Garden at Chelsea, though only designs from the engravings of the paintings by Georg Dionysius Ehret seem to have been used at Chelsea. Philip Miller was Curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden and his sister-in-law was married to Ehret.
Wares bearing this type of botanical design are called ‘Hans Sloane’ type as the Physic Garden was on land leased by Sir Hans Sloane Lord of the Manor of Chelsea who lived at nearby Cheyne Manor. The Botanical work produced at Chelsea can be regarded as a purely English rococo style though of course the shadowed insects are derived from the ‘ombriete’ insects seen at Meissen during the 1740s. The Melon dish (No. 37) and the exceptional deep dessert dish decorated with the Tiger Lily and the native Large Blue butterfly (No.39) are some of the finest pieces to be seen in recent years. Bow was also a factory who produced very fine Botanical representations and early examples circa 1756, which were conceived in a very high degree of detail are extremely rare as opposed to later examples circa 1758, which exhibit an altogether more two dimensional quality. (Nos. 52,53 and 54) show the early characteristics to great effect.
The Bow manufactory, during the 1750s, under the erstwhile entrepreneurial guidance of Thomas Frye, provided a positively lively menagerie of table decoration to augment an already bustling fertilised ‘hot house’ of shapes and designs. Some of the earliest models that we exhibit from the manufactory are left in the white such as the important pair of Lions (No. 47), similar to the pair within the British Museum and which probably derive from renaissance bronze work. The reclined Pug Dog (No. 49) derives from a Meissen model as does the extremely rare Cockerel and Hen group (No.51), both show treatment of coloured enamel which is very similar to the painting on some of the early Muses Modeller figures. The Tawny Owl (No. 50) has a derivation closer to home, for this very rare model is also found in saltglaze and creamware emanating from Staffordshire (1745-50)..
The Derby host of animals is represented here by a lovely early dry edge pair of sheep (No. 57) and together with the fine important coloured pair of Boars (No. 58) date from the Planché period. Whilst insect and fruit painting is shown through the work of the ‘Moth Painter’ and another unusual hand on the three pierced circular baskets (Nos. 61,62 and 63).
Innovation and popular appeal was the Hallmark of Dr. Wall and his partners during the First period of production at Worcester and the very earliest of their coloured wares is shown by the lovely ribbed cream boat with the ‘tau’ handle circa 1753 (No 64) which exhibits a very unusual mix of both the famille verte and the famille rose palettes and elements of their design within its interior border.
There were only two naturalistic tureen forms manufactured at Worcester and we exhibit the cauliflower tureen, cover and stand (No. 66) printed with designs of butterflies taken from the ‘Ladies Amusement’. Functional wares dominated manufacture within a factory keen to keep up with the changing needs of the growing mercantile and wealthy sections of society, tankards and small mugs for cider and beer were a speciality of which the middle sized cylindrical tankard (No.67b) shows a particularly good rendering of the printed and painted ‘Red Bull’ pattern and rare to find on a straight sided form.
Worcester with their characteristic zeal for introduction to Court society in London entered into an agreement with James Giles in 1767 for them to not only to supply his atelier with porcelain to decorate but also for him to act as their Agent in London. Three very important wares from Giles’s early naturalistic period prior to this agreement are included (No. 69a,b and c) the pattern on the coffee pot (b) is previously unrecorded and the tea bowl and saucer with puce and blue sprigs (c) is only the second piece of this single service so far recorded, the other tea bowl and saucer being in the Ashmolean Museum. The decoration from the atelier has a very special naturalistic quality woven through all this designs and we are particularly proud to show the very fine blue scale service (No.72 a, b, c and d) which is an early example of floral work after the 1767 agreement and this pattern is not recorded by Gerald Coke in his book, ‘In Search of James Giles’.
The nineteenth century brought a new culturally individual style to our porcelain during the Regency period and through our triumphs on the field of battle during the Napoleonic Wars a more powerful Imperialistic nature was coined. The very rare Barr, Flight and Barr Worcester Griffin candlesticks (No. 75) positively guard their plinths with a sense of stalwart diffidence and determination that characterised the spirit of the Nation at that time. The same is true of the very strong pearlware model of the Horse (No.77).
A sense of lavishness is achieved with the four services we include at the end of the catalogue (No. 87) being a special order for the Earl of Devon from Powderham Castle. The splendid Coalport Imari patterned service (No.88), which is exceptional in its completeness and illustration of the Zenith reached within the Regency interior. Finally the Staffordshire pearlware botanical service (No.89) maintains a purity of decoration and captures the whole meaning of our Exhibition with designs taken from Curtis’s Gardening Magazine which shows all that is ‘The Splendour in the Grass’.
Brian
Haughton and Paul Crane
London 2004
©2004 Brian Haughton Antiques